The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter

Chapter 112 Strengthening friends’ abilities

I’ve heard that some people prefer to eat human flesh, but meeting them in reality I felt nothing but disgust towards them.

I pitied the person who was burned and eaten yesterday and there must have been a lot of victims beside him. According to the story that brother heard from them, the custom of eating people existed in Tonell Village for already three hundred years.

… This means that hero Gaien also ate humans there. Or maybe he was against it and consequently run away from the village?

Anyway, in the morning I returned to Hornest with all my limbs attached, so it can be called a good job. When we passed the town gates I casually ask something that was bothering me.

「By the way, brother, why you were at that village? It’s in the opposite direction from our home.」

「Aah, um, aah, doo, I have to, answer that?」

「You do. I have risked as well.」

「Right…」

Brother resigned himself and told me everything.

It seems that after he left the town, he met a young lovely girl who sprained her leg. After my brother gave her first aid, she told him that she wants to return to her village and asked if he could escort her.

At that point, it already was a bit strange, but my older brother who couldn’t resist a cute girl, agreed, wanting to show off how much of a gentleman he is, and properly escorted her all the way to the village. As gratitude, she invited him to her home, as he was sitting there thrilled how he will be able to finally get intimate with her, he suddenly received a punch to the face and lost consciousness.

「That punch wasn’t that of a frail girl…」

And when he woke up he was inside that storehouse. There was another captured person, brother contacted me on the day when he was taken away during the night.

His wrists were bound but fingers could move, so he was able to activate the ring. When he was captured, the villagers were saying that tomorrow will be his turn to be eaten, that in Tonell Village they were devouring human flesh for more than three hundred years.

Which terrified brother and made him contact me.

「Sorry, Noir. To think that I will be the one calling for help.」

「Well, it’s fine since you are unharmed. First, let’s go to the inn and rest.」

Saying that I head to the inn, but my brother didn’t follow me at all. He stood in the middle of the road and stared at me with teary eyes.

「You got strong, Noir. You have grown up. It’s amazing, really.」

「I too had a pretty tough time.」

「I too, I too will start living more seriously. I will become a man who can stand proud as your older brother.」

「First, fix your problems with women.」

「… Yes, I will control myself for a while and will persist in merchant studies and sword practice.」

It’s been a long time since I last saw brother with such a serious face. Let’s hope that he will greatly grow from now on.

Returning to the hotel I roughly reported the gist of this incident to Emma and others. Everyone was shocked. After that, I would like to inform Shoen-sama, but since I was sleepy the rest comes first.

I slept for about five hours and in the afternoon proceed towards Shoen-sama’s residence. After talking about the last events, I ask him to capture the villagers as soon as possible.

「That is my territory… But I can not decide this on my own. Let’s discuss it with other influential nobles.」

「There should be a lot of victims. Have you ever heard of such rumor until now?」

When I asked that he made an extremely conflicted face. Well, there probably have been reports of some sort. But since it was the village of the hero they probably had some policy that wouldn’t allow to punish them without hard evidence.

However, the circumstances are different this time. There are two living witnesses, so they should be able to make an appropriate judgment.

After that, I moved to the training area and blending with the soldiers worked on my archery.

「You will sweat today what you skipped yesterday.」

What Lyrica-san tasked me with was to hit the moving target with an arrow.

Soldiers throw balls, that could fit in the palm of their hands, over a long distance, and I have to aim there. Duo with good shoulders was throwing while putting some force into it, so the speed was there. And since the target is small the difficulty is quite high.

「You can hit this much, right?」

Probably on purpose, but Lyrica-san tries to agitate me. Probably, it will be my loss if I get frustrated. I calmly release an arrow. I missed… But, I grazed it.

「… A graze from the get-go?」

Yes! The skill for vision improvement that I made yesterday to save my brother, it can be also useful when I shoot the bow.

Vision becomes especially important when you aim at the distant enemy.

I calm down and observe the ball’s trajectory. They throw them at a certain rhythm, without much disarray. In part due to that, but the next arrow pierces a ball in the air.

「So unfair! It took me three days until I succeed at this myself.」

Three days is crazy enough, came a retort from a soldier nearby.

On this day, I continued this training and devoted myself to raising accuracy.

At night, Emma came to my room to raise my LP. In her hands was the fruit which she fed me in a certain peculiar fashion. We tried some other exciting ways to enjoy ourselves as well.

As both of us got excited and were about to get into a strange mood, a noise came from the next room and Laura-san inquired about our progress.

Anyway, thanks to that LP was steadily accumulating.

◇ ◆ ◇

It seems that my brother refrained from going back to our hometown and resolved to stay in this town.

Supposedly when the wave will come he will take shelter in a friend’s underground dwelling.

From my point of view that is exactly what I would like him to do. If he decided to fight without a clear understanding of the enemy’s strength and then died, it would be the most troubling for me. My brother is a merchant so there is no reason for him to go out of his way and fight.

And then, us, Stalgia brothers were called to Shoen-sama’s residence and were sitting on the sofa there. There were several influential noblemen who I saw for the first time, and the mood was pretty tense.

「This morning, multiple monsters attacked again, and it seems they were about to break through the gates. The onslaught is certainly approaching.」

Shoen-sama had dark circles under his eyes. He is busy every day. Securing evacuation sites for residents, appealing for reinforcements from places other than the royal capital, he really had a lot on his plate. And now on top of it, he also had a case of cannibal village.

An aged old man makes a cough, implicitly conveying that he wants to get started on the main subject. Shoen-sama understood that.

「Regarding Tonell Village, I have decided not to give them any particular punishment.」

「Why?! We almost died!」

Brother gets emotional and stands up. However, the old nobleman shouted him to sit down.

And then he starts to explain as if the blame was on him and Shoen-sama.

「First of all, that is the birthplace of Gaien. Who would believe that the villagers from there liked human meat? And you don’t even have any proof.」

If you look for it at least bones will come up, but it would be indeed difficult to prove that they belonged to a victim.

「Second, the story itself lacks credibility. This person… Gillan, was it? There is a problem with you as a person.」

「What ever did I do?」

「As showed investigation, you are a terrible womanizer. Your achievements at the commercial school are not particularly good either. Your typical, untrustworthy person.」

*Auu* … My brother leaks out a pained voice. All things mentioned were facts, so there is no refuting that. Even if I say that brother has reformed, this person will just laugh through his nose and that will be the end of it.

There is nothing to discuss anymore, thus nobles left the room.

We also didn’t try to argue any further and just sat there.

「Every year, we lose contact with someone after they go to that village. At that is at the time of the birthday festival. That is why I trust you.」

Shoen-sama’s kindness pierces deep into my heart. However, even for a lord such as himself, it was difficult to sentence people at his sole discretion, considering the possible opposition from the people.

Furthermore, now he had the wave, an even more pressing matter on his hands.

「When things calm down, I certainly will raise this question once again. By the way, Noir-kun. Do you remember hearing about the double door?」

I shake my head. These words I heard for the first time.

「I see. I heard that you possess Great Sage. If I’m not mistaken if can grant you all kinds of knowledge?」

「Yes. However, it cannot predict the future, and it’s not like it knows everything.」

「Then. For example, how about the way to open the double door that I just mentioned?」

「Of course, it is possible to ask.」

「… Shoen-sama. It is about time.」

One of the people who left earlier came back as if he could not wait any longer. Shoen-sama stood up a bit disappointed, and after saying that he would like to talk again in the future, left.

After we drank up the expensive black tea, we left the room.

Brother said that he will research about Gaien and Tonell Village at the library.

「I will find out whether Gaien was a cannibal or left the village because he was against it!」

「I hope you will.」

As for me, I can’t go on an investigation. I want to raise my proficiency with a bow as much as possible. First on today’s training menu is a speed shooting of targets placed side by side.

After clearing it, I will have to shoot the apple of the head of a soldier. Naturally, a failure would lead to terrible consequences. A soldier skilled at healing is on the standby nearby.

Even so, all of the soldiers were close to crying. After I finished with all of the trials they came to exchange passionate handshakes.

「The most important thing for an archer is a calm mind. The spirit of「I will pierce all the way to your a**s」is very important, ufufu.」

Lyrica-san’s tone and character were a bit of that for her age, but she was very good at teaching. She efficiently pulls out my latent potential.

After I’m done with my training, I observed the training of everyone else.

Then we returned to the inn and talked about abilities.

「First of all I would like to grant【Physical Resistance】and【Escape】to Laura-san.」

Laura-san had little actual combat experience, so this time I would prefer if instead of actually fighting she focused more on evacuation guidance. The skills that improve your defense capabilities and escape capabilities were important since they would allow her to avoid death.

Laura-san also agreed so I granted her【Physical Resistance B】and【Escape】.

「Emma, how about raising your overall proficiency with dual-wielding daggers?」

Since she already had a medium ranged attack named wind strike, this time I put emphasis on enhancing basic abilities.

「It’s okay. I count on you.」

I edited her【Dual wielding daggers B】and raised it to A rank. It is cheaper in terms of LP than creating a new skill and then granting it.

That leaves Luna-san. In her case, I asked her directly. Does she want to raise her skill with a magic gun or does she want a special skill?

「It is possible to have the skill called Speed Shot?」

When I check it, creation takes 500 LP, and it will take another 100 LP to give it to Luna. The reason why the additional cost was so low was that Luna-san had a natural talent for magic gun. Although I granted it without any problems there was a point that slightly bothered me.

【Speed Shot】

＜Using a magic gun as intermediary fire a single extremely fast energy shot. Does ＜not ＞ possess much power. ＞

I guess it is particularly effective for preemptive attacks and low defense enemies. Suppose nothing can be done about the power, but a single shot bothered me.

Changing it to firing in rapid succession requires only 400 LP. When I tell Luna-san about it her eyes shine.

「If you can afford then please, it will help me a lot.」

Yeah, I was able to improve it without any problems. I expended roughly 4000 LP for three people, but since I had around 6000 LP I still have some to spare.

「Layla-san, will you strengthen anything?」

「I’m fine. How about saving it up? It will become useful if a strong enemy appears or something happens.」

「Thank you for your concern.」

If I save it, then in case of emergency I will be able to destroy an opponent’s skill or downgrade it. And the rest is raising my abilities.

「I’m on duty tonight. Let’s do our best to get a looooot LP at once again.」

Laura-san said with a dazzling smile. Are we going to do the same thing as that time? I’m already getting nervous.